Where to Cuddle a Koala: Lone Pine, Australia Zoo, Featherdale, Targona?
 

Where is the best place to cuddle a koala: Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary (Brisbane), Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo (Brisbane), Currumbin (Brisbane), Featherdale (Blue Mountains), and/or Taronga Zoo (Sydney)?

My spouse and I can visit one or more of these sites if each offers something different. Can we interact with other animals (besides koalas) at any of these facilities? We will be visiting in late August 2012.

My personal choice is Currumbin. You can wander through
kangaroos and wallabies here, hold koalas and see many different Australian birds and animals. It is a great wildlife reserve. If you haven't already, check out their website

www.cws.org.au There is a very long list of animals and birds you csn see there.

It is 23 years since I visited Lone Pine. Our children enjoyed cuddling a koala, but I don't recall much else there. Haven't been to Australia Zoo, or Featherdale.

Count out Featherdale and Taronga. You can't cuddle koalas in this state.

Margo's correct, its illegal for public to handle koalas in state of NSW. The others are in the state of Queensland where its OK in some parks, as far as I know this would include the ones you mention.

If you're coming further north in Queensland, both Kuranda Gardens and Cairns Tropical Zoo near Cairns allow the holding of koalas for photos.

Don't know about touching the koalas at Australia Zoo, but the kangaroos are very friendly. There are a lot of them and when I was there last September, there were a number of does & joeys which came up to us for a scratch as we walked through their area.

Probably your best bet would be to contact the zoos/wildlife parks in Qld direct about touching koalas and other animals.
Their website FAQs may also address this question.

For future reference Moonlit Santuary about an hour out of Melbourne allows you to stand next to a Koala and cuddle it.

http://www.moonlit-sanctuary.com/

NB - we haven't been there. We only saw the brochure.

Taronga Park Zoo has a similar deal where you can be photographed with a koala, for a fee of course. I'm not sure what the level of contact is.

Fluffnfold, just in case their cute looks are deceiving you, koalas are not cuddly, they are wild animals and as such they are not especially keen to be handled or cuddled.

Hi Susan

I was at Taronga Park not too long ago and took special note of tourist interaction with koalas, tourists often ask me about it. They can pay $19.95 for a "Koala Encounter" which enables them to stand next to a koala for photo, but not hold it. Taronga's website states "Please note that due to NSW government regulations holding koalas is not permitted".

Hi Pat, that's good to know. It does sound like a bit of a tourist rort to me, but I guess it's probably in a good cause for the research at Taronga.

Pat - were you on some sort of busman's holiday?

I haven't been to Lone Pine or Currumbin for years but just checking the Lone Pine site they even have a sheep dog show. They seem to have lots of animals kangaroo feeding etc and there is a boat you can catch that will take you up the Brisbane River to Lone Pine, which you might enjoy.

Australia Zoo is a great place to visit as well. So perhaps it might be a case of what would be most convenient as all the Brisbane/Gold Coast destinations seem to feature much of the same thing.

Exactly, Susan7 - and quite likely to piddle on the " cuddler" according to a former Minister for Tourism.
Still, I'm sure they wouldn't all behave so ungraciously to being picked up. I guess you'd have to be unlucky - and after all, how pongy can koala pee be?

Shocking article on koalas in the latest National Geographic magazine. I hope they're for future generations to cuddle.

I've just had a look at the Lone Pine website too, after reading stormbird's post. It's pretty fantastic looking - well worth a visit just for the many Australian animals well worth seeing. The bonus would be holding a koala.

Pat / margo_oz, how long has it been unlawful to hold koalas in Sydney? I held koalas at Black Butt Reserve years ago, and so did our children some years later.

Dotty, according to Lone Pine Sanctuary website it was banned in NSW in 1997. I did check some time ago with the Koala Foundation in Brisbane who said legislation is pending in Queensland to make it illegal, but the Koala Foundation receives payments from Queensland wildlife parks which allow the practice and helps the Foundation, in no small way, to rescue and treat injured or sick koalas.

Not all Queensland wildlife parks allow the practice, they must have enough koalas to spell them properly to help eliminate stress on the animals from over-handling and exposing them to human disease.

Thanks, Pat. I didn't look very hard at much other than the animals on the Lone Pine website, I must confess. I don't feel too bad now - I held koalas and spent at least half an hour with different koalas in 1987, and the children in 1989. It was an interesting place with a swearing cockatoo, a few other birds, and lots of koalas.

I wouldn't exactly call it a "cuddle," but for a fee, I was able to hold a koala for a wonderful photo at the wildlife park in Pt. Douglas. Koalas aside, the park was FANTASTIC -- a beautiful setting with tons of kangaroos and wallabies who are happy to be petted, scratched, and ... fed as they roam the grounds freely. I did their "Breakfast with the Birds" event -- and it was great fun.

We went to Currumbin and "held" a Koala. They take pictures, which you can buy but they also let you take your own. There are lots of other animals etc to see here, highly recommend.
They have plenty of Koalas on rotation and each Koala is only held for 1 hour total a day. ( I think - whatever it is, it's not very long and the Koala I held didn't seem distressed at all...